TEOCHEW DIALECT: A CASE OF LANGUAGE SHIFT

Dialectologia 25 (2020), 219-236. ISSN: 2013-2247

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Received 31 August 2018.

Accepted 22 November 2018.

TEOCHEW DIALECT: A CASE OF LANGUAGE SHIFT

Tan Kim HUA & Woo Mei FOONG

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia **

[email protected] / [email protected]

Abstract

This paper looks into the language shift of Teochew, a dialect of the minority Chinese community in

Klang, Malaysia. The aim of this research is to rationalise the language shift of Teochew to other Chinese

languages, such as Mandarin. Two theoretical frameworks guided the methodology; that is, a) the linguistic

variation framework, and b) the “acts of identity” framework. A combination of both of these frameworks

enabled the scrutiny of external and the internal forces that caused the linguistics variation, and the

identification of the attitudes of the younger generation of Teochew speakers towards Teochew. Findings

indicated that the younger generation of Teochew speakers in Klang is indeed participating in the process of

language shift from Teochew to Mandarin, and they displayed more negative attitudes than positive ones

towards Teochew. Although they do not look highly upon their native language, they still think that knowing

their native language is important. External factors, such as the demographic factors and the mass media

too contributed to the rate of the language shift.

Keywords

Teochew, language shift, identity, dialect

EL DIALECTO TEOCHEW: UN CASO DE CAMBIO LINGÜÍSTICO

Resumen

Este artículo analiza el cambio lingüístico en teochew, un dialecto de la comunidad china minoritaria

en Klang, Malasia. El objetivo de esta investigación es explicar el cambio lingüístico en teochew junto con

otros idiomas chinos, como el mandarín. Dos marcos teóricos han guiado la metodología: a) el marco de

variación lingüística, y b) el marco de "actos de identidad". Una combinación de ambos marcos ha permitido

** Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor.

©Universitat de Barcelona


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el escrutinio de las fuerzas externas e internas que provocan la variación lingüística y la identificación de las

actitudes de la generación más joven de hablantes de teochew hacia su propia lengua. Los resultados

indican que la generación más joven de hablantes de teochew en Klang participa en el proceso de cambio

lingüístico de teochew a mandarín, y mostró más actitudes negativas que positivas hacia el teochew. Sin

embargo, aunque no valoran mucho su lengua materna, todavía piensan que conocerla es importante.

Factores externos, como factores demográficos y medios de comunicación también han contribuido al

cambio lingüístico.

Palabras clave

Teochew, cambio lingüístico, identidad, dialecto

1. Background of Study

Language is an important symbol of ethnic identity. The selection and use of

language are assumed to be closely related to maintenance of identity. However, the

younger generation feels the other way, and has a negative attitude towards their native

tongue, especially respondents that are involved in this study. Findings show that 12% of

the respondents are in the opinion that the Teochew dialect has no added advantage or

any importance.

For some immigrant and minority languages in the world, language shift and even

language death appear to be the outcome of contact with the more powerful local

languages. This research is significant for the Chinese communities in the society. The

Chinese communities need to be aware that language, culture, and identity are very much

related to one another. Therefore, language is an important symbol of ethnic identity.

The older generation of Teochew speakers should realise the importance of propagating

the language to the younger generation, so that Teochew will not be a “moribund”

language.

Language is not rigid and will constantly change, develop and grow to suit the

volatile environment. Thus, every member of the community undergoes these deep social

and language changes. The most common scenario is when two different languages come

into contact. There is bound to be conflict, and the result is that one language will



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supplant the other. It is usually the languages of the minority groups that are being

supplanted by the language of the majority or dominant groups.

Kloss (1984: 65) had identified three types of language death:

1. Language death without language shift (the speech community dies out)

2. Language death because of language shift (the speech community does not exist

within a ‘compact speech area’, or the language succumbs to ‘the intrinsic hostility

modern civilisation’)

3. Nominal language death through a metamorphosis (e.g. a language is

downgraded to dialect status when the speech community stops writing it and begins to

use another closely related variety or the language undergoes ‘partition’).

According to Krauss (1992: 2), as many as half of the estimated 6000 languages

spoken on earth are “moribund”, which means languages that are no longer being spoken

by the native speakers. Many have considered that the possession of a given language is

essential to the maintenance of group identity. Therefore, language has increasingly been

investigated as an integral part of human social life, within areas of linguistics, sociology

and psychology.

Chinese language comprises many dialects and they are not homogenous. For this

reason, they are mutually unintelligible and they are referred as languages (Chinese

Language Encyclopedia Articles: Encyclopedia Deluxe: World English Edition Encarta CD-

ROM 1999). Thus, Teochew in this research paper is known as a language by itself. Yet

traditionally, and according to their speakers, they are dialects. This perception is partly

due to the fact that all the Chinese language employed a common written form.

Although the main Chinese language in Klang, Selangor, is Hokkien, there is a reason

to believe that other Chinese languages, such as Teochew is still in use by a small group of

the community. But Teochew is only used in certain domains, such as to communicate

with family members and other Teochew speakers. Therefore, there is a good reason to

believe that Teochew might be dying. This is not because of the decreasing number of

Teochew people in Klang, but more importantly is the decreasing number of Teochew

speakers. It is believed that the Teochew speakers are shifting from Teochew to other

languages, such as Mandarin, Hokkien and Cantonese. This is due to the influence of the



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internal forces such as the attitudes of the speakers, and the external forces such as the

mass media and the demographic factors. In addition, this language shift might lead to

the language death of Teochew. Furthermore, there is a reason to believe that it is the

younger generation that contributed to the decaying of Teochew.

The main aim of this research is to find out the reasons behind the decline of

Teochew in Klang town. This research also aims to identify the different social or non-

linguistic factors that influence the speakers to participate in the process of language

shift. Its specific objectives are:

1. To describe the Teochew speakers’ attitudes, especially the younger

generation’s attitudes towards Teochew.

2. To provide a realistic view of Teochew in Klang; that is, whether this language is

decaying or dying.

3. To describe both the internal and external forces that influenced language shift.

There are two frameworks in this research; the linguistics variation and the “acts of

identity” framework. These two frameworks were combined in order to conduct this

research. Social identity theory is a theory where an individual’s identity revolves around

the social group they are associated with (McLeod 2008). Gal (1979: 3) claimed that

changes in language choices derive from changes in how speakers wish to present

themselves in interaction.

The linguistic variation framework involves two languages: one is the local dialect,

and the other is the standard one. This framework is presented in a different context, and

it is not just a matter of pronunciation differences, or vocabulary choices, or grammatical

variation. According to Holmes (1994: 8), this framework is made popular by two

sociolinguists in the late 1960s. They used this framework to conduct research in a village

in northern Norway, where all the villagers know and use two distinct kinds of Norwegian.

One is the local dialect called Ranamal, and the other is the standard dialect or standard

Norwegian called Bokmal. Through this framework they tried to scrutinise the reasons

why the speakers practiced language shift, from Ranamal to Bokmal.

This method is supported by Blount & Sanches (1977: 23). They stated that variation

in performance must be included in any theory of a language code. Without such an

inclusion, variation is seen as neither a regular phenomenon nor an on-going process,



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which can be observed and explained. William Labov and others have demonstrated

clearly that the linguistic variation that is caused by the external and the internal forces

are closely interrelated in the process of language change.

Furthermore, the “acts of identity” framework will enable the researcher to identify

the attitudes of the younger generation towards their native language. A framework by Le

Page & Tobouret-Keller (1985: 14) is an access to the process of emergence and

disintegration of identities and the resulting language shift or language maintenance.

The combination of both frameworks will enable the researcher: a) to scrutinise the

external and the internal forces that caused the linguistic variations and b) to identify the

attitudes of the younger generation of Teochew speakers towards Teochew.

2. Language Shift

In nearly every part of the world, languages are becoming extinct, especially

indigenous languages. According to Brenzinger (1991: 10), 90 percent of the existing

languages today are likely to die or become a seriously embattled within the next century.

The process of language shift has received a lot of attention among sociolinguistics

since the mid-1960s (Mohamad Subakir 1998: 28). Most of the researchers relate the

internal and the external forces to the processes of language shift. For example, Dorian

(1981: 28) showed that the concept of ethnicity is important in language shift. This is

because it influenced the internal forces — that is, the attitude of the speakers. Thus, as

the language seen as an important symbol of ethnicity, it is generally maintained longer.

Besides this, Dorian (1981) and Gal (1979) too revealed many of the social determinants

involved in language shifts. These social determinants are the external forces that

influenced the linguistic variation of a certain speech community.

Mohamad Subakir (1998) conducted research on the language shift of Javanese to

Malay in Sungai Lang. The Javanese in Sungai Lang, are considered the minority among

the Malay community. In his research, he used the linguistic variation framework and the

“acts of identity” framework to analyse the reason for the language shift. Through these



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frameworks, he was able to identify the attitudes of the Javanese towards their native

language and those external forces such as the geographic areas, social status, occupation

and many more that caused linguistic variation.

Mohamad Subakir’s main concern is the attitudes of the younger generation

towards Javanese. This is because the attitudes of the speakers will determine whether

the speakers will maintain their native language or participate in language shift. Hence,

his findings on the attitudes of the younger generation will be used as a guideline for this

research of Teochew in Klang. In his research, he identified three different codes that the

villagers used in their daily lives: Malay, Javanese and Javanised Malay (which is mainly

used by older villagers or those who had learned Malay only later in their lives, usually

through formal instruction in school).

In his findings, he found out that the villagers have a positive view towards Malay

language, in contrast to Javanese and Javanised Malay. There are four categories of

villagers who favour Malay over their native language: (most of the) female villagers, the

younger villagers, those who had better educational backgrounds and those who aspired

to be upwardly mobile socio-economically.

Basically, he is more interested in looking into the attitudes of the villagers towards

their native language. Although attitudes are the internal forces that caused language

shift or language maintenance, it too is an entity that is influenced by the external forces.

This is pointed out by Potowski (2013) as she mentioned how despite the positive attitude

towards Spanish in the United States, the speakers would shift to English by the third

generation hence proving that positive attitudes toward a language in itself does not

guarantee language maintenance.

In Subakir’s analysis, he found out that the number of younger generation who uses

Javanese is decreasing. Moreover, there are very few of the younger informants that

actually admitted outright that they spoke Javanese in or outside of the family.

Furthermore, the use of Javanese is limited to only very few villagers who for specific

reasons are still very attached to Javanese, and they use Javanese in limited domains such

as with family members and in the neighbourhood.

As a whole, the Javanese themselves tend to view Javanese as a handicap to their

children’s education and socio-economic advancement. These findings of the younger



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generations’ attitudes are adapted to the research of Teochew in Klang, where its focus is

also the younger generation.

Ding (2016) found that parents who choose to not speak the heritage language

would later influence their children’s language use and the children’s proficiency in the

heritage language as well. Her studies also confirm the trend of reducing the use of

heritage language and adapting Mandarin as a primary language among the younger

generations in Malaysia as they prefer to use Mandarin even in the family domain.

The external factor that Mohamad Subakir (1998) looked into is occupation or

socio-economic standing, which influenced the attitudes of the speakers. In general,

villagers who are white-collar workers and factory workers used Malay more than

labourers or farmers. This is because Malay language is associated with modernisation,

and at the same time associated Javanese with traditional or backward values. This view

is not only shared by the younger generation, but by most Javanese. Hence, when

Javanese came into contact with the factor of socio-economic status, most Javanese

speakers will associate Javanese with a negative attitude. Thus, this negative attitude

towards Javanese contributed to the language shift.

Mohamad Subakir’s findings are important in the research on the Teochew

language in Klang. This is because this research too aimed to describe and identify the

younger generation’s attitudes towards Teochew language. Mohamad Subakir’s research

provided a useful guideline for the researcher to analyse the decaying Teochew language

in Klang.

Beside Mohamad Subakir’s research, there is also the research done by Terra (1983:

126-146) titled The Effects of Language Planning on a Penang Hokkien Kampung: People

Separated by a Blade of Grass Could Not Understand Each Other. The thrust of this

research is however, on language planning of the national language; that is, Bahasa

Melayu, on a targeted population. This language planning leads to language shift, where

certain speakers of Hokkien in the targeted community practised language shift from

Hokkien to Bahasa Melayu.

The findings of the research showed that the speakers shifted their native language

to the national language because of the socio-economic impact of the language planned.



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This is because the planned language determined the speakers’ social class. Hence, the

socio-economic aspect is the external factor that determined the speakers’ attitudes

toward their native language. This is supported by by Dobrin (2014) where speakers

express regret about the language loss but language shift is inevitable as the sentiment

coexists with the desire for development.

3. Research Framework

The descriptive method is used to conduct this research, where the data were

collected using questionnaires. Besides this, data were also collected through the

observation method. This is achieved by attending a meeting at the Teochew Association.

Apart from that, data were also collected through an interview with the President of the

Teochew Association. The data collected from the observation and the interview method

served to reinforce the findings of the questionnaires. This research used the abstract

descriptive method as it enables the researcher to describe the behaviour and attitudes

of the Teochew community especially the younger generation’s attitudes toward their

native language. This method too enables the researcher to find out the reasons behind

this language shift which finally lead to language death. Furthermore, this method will

also highlight the existence and the extent of this language death problem.

The concrete descriptive method is not used in this research because most of the

members are from the middle or working class. Therefore, the researcher need not

categorise the respondents into their respective professions. Moreover, because the

respondents’ actions or attitudes toward their native language are influenced by other

more powerful factors, namely the external factors such as the mass media and the

demographic factors. The population of this research is made up of the members of the

Teo Chew Poi Yip Association Klang and Coast Districts (TAKCD). At the present stage,

there are 756 members in the association and the members are divided into two groups;

that is those who are a) above 45 and those b) below 45. About 60% of its members fall

under the first group, while the rest fall under the second group. The second group, which



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are also known as the ‘Youth Movement’ of the association, its members’ age ranged

from 15 to 45 years old and they are the main focus of this research.

The researcher further narrows down the participants to those who are below 30

years old and there are the ones that are considered as the younger generation of

Teochews in this research. There are 50 respondents in this research.

There are a few variables that were controlled in this research: a) the participants

must be under 30 years old, b) the respondents must be from the ‘Youth Movement’ of

the TAKCD and c) either one or both of the respondent’s parents must be a Teochew

originate.

The questionnaire contained four distinct type of question content: behaviour,

beliefs, attitudes and attributes (Dillman 1978: 80). The questions in the questionnaire

are both in the open-ended and closed-ended format. The questionnaire is bilingual, in

English and Mandarin because some of the respondents might not be fluent in English

and might be more comfortable using Mandarin.

Besides the external forces, the parents also influenced the characteristic of the

respondents. According to Holmes (1994), in her discussion of bilingual parents, pointed

out that parents initially decide the children’s language. The characteristics of the

respondents such as their knowledge about Teochew language, their mother tongue,

their proficiency in using Teochew language and so on, are controlled by their parents.

This description about how the parents influenced the children or in what way the

parents can influence or control the children is important because it will shape the

attitudes and behaviour of speakers toward their native language. This objective can be

seen in the Appendix: Question 2-7.

Question 2 and 3 enabled the researcher to find out whether the respondents’

parents are Teochew originate or not, and what languages they used to communicate

with their children. Question 4 asks for the respondents’ mother tongue while Question 5

and 7 enabled the researcher to identify the respondents’ proficiency in Teochew.

Question 6 enabled the researcher to discover the domains of which Teochew is used.

The positive attitudes of the respondents show that they will continue using the

language and will encourage and transmit it to the next generation. Furthermore, the



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positive attitudes support efforts to use the minority language in a variety of domains,

and this helps the speakers to resist the pressure from the majority group to switch to

their language.

Conversely, the negative attitudes of the respondents that can be traced in the

questionnaire shows that they have the tendency to stop using the language because

they respond negatively toward their native language. Thus, leading to language shift

from Teochew to Mandarin, which leads to language death of Teochew.

The research on language attitude was introduced in 1960 by Lambert, Hodgson,

Gardner & Fillenbaum (1960: 30) when they introduce the “matched-guise” technique as

a means of assessing language attitudes.

The external factors in this research consist of the demographic and the mass media

factors. The external factors are also relevant in accounting for the speed of language

shift. In the demographic factors, Klang is known as a place where most of the Chinese

are Hokkiens and the Teochews, and are considered the minority. Furthermore, most of

the Chinese use Mandarin, the standard Chinese language to communicate. Thus, this

situation or environment does not permit the speakers of Teochew to use their language

widely. Moreover, Klang is a big city and the Klangites are influenced by the pull of

outside forces. Thus, it is hard for the Teochews to use their indigenous language on a

regular basis. Questions that consider both of these factors can be seen in the Appendix:

Question 9, 10, 11, and 19.

Besides using the questionnaire, an observation was carried out when the

researcher attended a short meeting on 23 December 1999 conducted by the President of

the ‘Youth Movement’ of the association. The main reason the researcher attended this

meeting is to distribute the questionnaire to the selected group of respondents. Hence, it

was an opportunity to conduct an observation in which the results will further validate

the findings.

A short interview with the President of TAKCD was conducted on January 5, 2000.

Below are the questions that were asked:

a. What is/are your opinion(s) about the survival of Teochew language in Klang?

b. What do you think is/are the attitudes of the younger generation towards

Teochew?



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c. Why is Teochew not popular among the younger generation?

d. Why is Mandarin used instead of Teochew among the younger generation,

especially in a meeting?

The researcher visited TAKCD to find out the date that the ‘Youth Movement’ will

have meeting with all of their members and to get permission to attend the meeting. A

meeting was held on 28 December 1999. In this meeting the researcher collected data

through observation and distributed 60 questionnaires to the respondents who are aged

below 30 years old. However, only 50 questionnaires were used for data analysis.

The completed questionnaires were collected from the secretary of the association

on January 5, 2000 and a short interview with the President of TAKCD was conducted on

the same day. 54 questionnaires were collected and 4 questionnaires were taken out

randomly to be kept as back up samples in case of “spoiled” questionnaires. All

questionnaires were numbered for easy reference and analysis.

Descriptive statistics is used to analyse collected data. This method will enable the

researcher to summarise the responses of respondents and results were tabulated.

4. Language Shift in Teochew Community

Findings show that the younger generation of Teochew speakers shift language as

52% of the respondents placed Mandarin as their “number one” language followed by

English (refer to Table 1). It was found from the interview with the President of TAKCD

that the language shift to Mandarin is due to it being the formal medium of instruction in

schools. It was also found that the Teochew dialect is often used in interaction between

family members especially those involving the older generations: the grandparents.



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Rank Type of Languages

Teochew Mandarin Hokkien English Malay Others

1 9 (18%) 26 (52%) 3 (6%) 12 (24%) - -

2 5 (10%) 13 (26%) 4 (8%) 27 (54%) - 1 (2%)

3 3 (6%) 10 (20%) 24 (48%) 9 (18%) 3 (6%) 1 (2%)

4 14 (28%) 1 (2%) 19 (38%) 2 (4%) 11 (22%) 3 (6%)

5 14 (28%) - - - 19 (38%) 17 (34%)

6 5 (10%) - - - 17 (34%) 28 (56%)

Table 1. The Ranking of Languages

Table 2 shows the domain use of the Teochew dialect in the community where the

highest percentage of use is in interaction with family members which are the

grandparents (43%), followed by parents and siblings (32%) and relatives (20%).

Interaction with friends had the lowest percentage which is 6%.

This process will eventually lead to language death if there is no realisation of the

importance of one’s native language. They participate in the language shift process

because they cannot identify themselves as Teochews. Moreover, they feel that

Mandarin is more promising than Teochew.

Domains Number Percentage (%)

Grandparents 23 43

Parents and siblings 17 32

Relatives 11 20

Friends 3 6

Table 2. The Domains of Use of Teochew



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Question Responses

1 Male: 32 Female: 18

2 Yes: 31 No: 19

2a Yes: 11 No: 20

2b HOK:12 HAK:2 C:4 O:1

3 Yes: 35 No: 15

3a Yes: 14 No: 21

3b HOK:12 C:2 O:1

4 TEO:15 M:26 HOK:19 C:4 ENG:4 O:1

5 Yes:10 No:10 Not sure: 6

6 A: 17 B:23 C:11 D:3

7 A:15 B:9 C:7 D:11 E:1 F:5

8 Yes:18 No: 6

9 Yes:9 No: 41

9a HOK:26 ENG:4 C:12 M:31 O:1

10 Yes:50 No: -

11 SA:7 A:21 D:16 SD:6 DNK: -

12 1st: M 2nd: ENG 3rd: HOK 4th: HOK 5th: BM 6th: O

13 Yes:44 No:6

14 SA:15 A:29 D:5 SD:1 DNK: -

15 SA: - A:6 D:33 SD:11 DNK: -

16 Yes:39 No:11

16a ENG:36 M:32 HOK:9 O:5

17 SA:3 A:27 D:16 SD:4 DNK: -

18 Yes:44 No:6

19 FS:13 MS:31 WNS:4 DISC:2

Table 3. Overall Results of Closed-Ended Questions

Legend

HOK Hokkien SA Strongly agree HAK Hakka A Agree



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M Mandarin D Disagree TEO Teochew SD Strongly disagree C Cantonese DNK Do Not Know ENG English FS Fully support BM Bahasa Melayu MS Might support O Other than Chinese

language DISC Discourage WNS Will not support

In regard to the speakers’ attitudes, 80% of the respondents (refer to Table 3 for

Question 6, 8, 13, 14, 17, 18 and 19) showed positive attitude toward the Teochew dialect

and think it is important to know their native language:

a. so that Teochew will not become the language of the minority

b. so that Teochew will become a common language in Klang

c. so that as person understand more languages, he/she will gain advantage over

those who don’t

d. there will be more Teochew speakers

e. because it is their native language

f. in order to gain more knowledge by knowing more languages, especially their

own native language

g. for solidarity

The rest of the respondents showed a negative attitude toward the Teochew dialect

and they disagreed that the dialect has any added advantage. Below are the respondents’

opinions:

a. the dialect does not contribute to the development of the society

b. it is not the lingua franca of the Chinese community

c. as it is the language of the minority, it has a very limited domain

d. Mandarin is far more important than Teochew

e. knowing Teochew is a handicap



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f. knowing the dialect will not enable someone to be accepted by the dominant

society

g. Teochew is not an important language, it is therefore unnecessary to acquire

proficiency in the language

The internal and external forces influence the decline of the Teochew speakers in

Klang. The internal forces include the attitudes of the speakers, and the external forces

are the demographic factor, the mass media, and the parents. Both external and internal

forces are part of the research framework.

External force such as demographic factors contributes to the acceleration of

language shift. It was found that Klang is one of the places where the majority of its

community is lcoated: 89,064 people or 37% is of Chinese ethnicity, followed by Malays at

84,206 people or 35% of its community. Based on local authorities’ survey, it was also

found that the Hokkien and Teochew are only a minority. This prevents or dampens the

wide usage of the Teochew dialect. The Teochew association itself does not use the

dialect during meetings with its members and instead, Mandarin is used for

communication. This shows that the environment itself is not moving towards upholding

the language.

Additionally, the mass media also influences and promotes the use of a language.

For example, most programs curated for the Chinese community are mostly in Mandarin

or Cantonese. The audience are naturalised and become so used to the language that it

naturally becomes the language of everyday use. The Teochew dialect therefore only

exists as a dialect that is rarely used and more of its speaker’s language shift from

Teochew to Mandarin or Cantonese.

The negative attitude of young generation toward the Teochew dialect is also

influenced by the parent. Most parents realise the importance of the Teochew dialect

although they doubt that they have the ability to pass the language to their children. This

is also one of the obvious contributions to language loss.



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Parents Teochew Non-Teochew

Mother 31 19

Speaks Teochew to you? Yes:11(35%) No:20(65%) -

Father 35 15

Speaks Teochew to you? Yes:14(40%) NO:21(60%) -

Table 4. Use of Teochew between Parents and Respondents

Table 4 shows the percentages of Teochew used in the interaction between parents

and their children i.e. the respondents. Findings show that 65% of mothers of Teochew

originate do not use Teochew when interacting with the respondent and the same goes

for 60% of fathers of Teochew originate.

However, the remaining 35% of Teochew mothers and 40% Teochew fathers use

the dialect when interacting with their children, which could indicate that they realise the

advantage of knowing the mother tongue. This is supported by findings from the

questionnaire discussed earlier.

It was also found that some of the respondents are ambivalent toward the Teochew

dialect, as despite acknowledging Mandarin as a prestigious language, they still want to

learn the dialect. This might be due to them identifying themselves as a Teochew and

wanting to maintain the dying dialect.

5. Conclusion

The decline of languages often has a predominance of older speakers. In this study,

it was found that majority of the parents did not pass on the Teochew dialect to their

children and most of the respondents themselves do not identify themselves as being

Teochew. The lack of transmission is the main contributor of language loss. Through

observation, the Teochew association too does not provide a strong group identity to its

community as they prefer using Mandarin over the dialect itself.



235

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TEOCHEW DIALECT: A CASE OF LANGUAGE SHIFT

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